After missing his entire rookie season with a foot injury that ultimately required surgery, it would have been understandable if second-year Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Calvin Austin III had modest expectations for his second NFL season — and first season on the field.
Instead, Austin set his expectations for his first foray into the NFL rather high.
Appearing on the ESPN 92.9 FM radio show in Memphis on Thursday with hosts Jason Smith and John Martin, Austin said that while he has high expectations for himself, he is proud he’s been able to get on the field and gain experience, and that hopefully when his first full season in the NFL is over, he can look back and say he reached those expectations.
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have it set a little higher than that. I still definitely have a lot of work to do, but this next like what three-fourths of a season that we have left? I definitely set the bar very high for myself,” Austin said to Martin and Smith, according to audio via the show’s website. “Hopefully, Lord willing, we’re talking after the season, and I can talk about how I met those expectations.
“I have definitely been proud of the fact that I’ve been on the field, got that experience and I feel like I’m just starting to like settle in, going through each game and stuff like that, just getting the feel for the flow of each game. So I definitely think that for the second half of the season that I got my expectations high, but I do expect to reach ’em.”
What those expectations Austin has for himself are unclear, but he’s off to a solid start through his first five NFL games.
Austin has provided some splash, hauling in his first career touchdown on the road in Week Three against the Las Vegas Raiders, getting behind the Raiders’ secondary for a 72-yard touchdown from quarterback Kenny Pickett, helping lead the Steelers to a much-needed 23-18 win.
Austin has 12 receptions for 143 yards and a touchdown, building off the potential he showed in the preseason, scoring on a long touchdown in the preseason opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and flashing real potential as a punt returner.
He hasn’t been quite as explosive as he was in college, but the Memphis product is continuing to adjust to the NFL.
In the first five weeks of the season, Austin has seen 22 total targets, averaging 11.9 yards per reception. He’s graded out at a 60.7 overall offensively from Pro Football Focus, with a 59.3 receiving grade, seeing 38 snaps in the slot out of 144 total receiving snaps with the other 106 coming outside. Surprisingly, Austin is also three-for-five in contested-catch situations, though one of those resulted in an interception against the Houston Texans.
While he hasn’t added that true explosive element to the Steelers’ offense through the first five weeks, the potential still remains. He’s staying healthy, has handled a heavy workload quite well and continues to get more and more comfortable in the NFL with each passing week. Hopefully coming out of the bye week the Steelers can figure out a way to get Austin more involved, searching for that offensive explosion. That should help Austin reach those high expectations he’s set for himself.
